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Sealed up

21 September 1991

The Biosphere 2 experiment, which will seal four men and four women
in an artificial closed environment for two years, is due to start on 26
September, a year behind schedule. The ‘Biospherians’ will share 200 000
cubic metres of space with 3800 species of plants. They hope to recycle
the air, water, and nutrients needed to sustain life within the structure,
which covers 1.27 hectares in the desert near Tucson, Arizona.

Space Biospheres Ventures began construction in 1987 with an initial
investment of $30 million. In July, the company announced that the structure’s
systems were ‘in full operation’, and set the 26 September date to seal
it.

The ‘2’ in the name was chosen because the Earth itself is supposedly
Biosphere 1. A late addition to the crew comes from London – Mark Nelson,
chairman of the Institute of Ecotechnics.